Revelation Chapter Three, The Book Of Life

Revelation 3:5 “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

Verse 5 cinches the truth revealed in the previous verse. Those who are worthy and walk with Christ in white are not made worthy by human effort, but by divine interposition. This is the crux of what John meant when he wrote, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right (authority) to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” John 1:12, 13.

To overcome in the context of this verse means to place one’s faith in Christ and be born into the family of God, 1 John 5:4, 5. So when we read of the saints being clothed in white garments, we know that it is the imputed righteousness of Christ they are given, not the filthy rags of human endeavor and human religion. Religion strives to make evil men better; Christ makes dead men live. Again, in this context we find the saints of Sardis–who are apparently few—walking with the Lord in white. The church of Sardis sounds like it may have been a majority of unsaved men and women, with a minority holding to the true faith.

The latter portion of this verse is even more intriguing. Our Lord mentions the Book of Life. Before the discussion begins about what this means, we should take a moment and trace the mentions of this book through Scripture. Moses, when pleading on behalf of sinful Israel, says to Yahweh, “But now, if You will, forgive their sin–and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” Exodus 32:32, NASB. God’s response? “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book,” Exodus 32:33, NASB. David, when speaking of his enemies, writes, “Add iniquity to their iniquity, and may they not come into Your righteousness. May they be blotted out of the book of life and may they not be recorded with the righteous,” Psalm 69:27, 28, NASB. We may immediately glean several simple points from these passages. First, there is a book called the Book of Life, which is God’s. Second, God reserves the prerogative to blot out the names of anyone found within it. But this is hardly an arbitrary blotting out. Moses and David both directly reference what causes one’s name to be blotted out: sin. Moses pleads on Israel’s behalf, wishing to be removed from the book in their place if God would only spare them. This is highly noble and selfless, but also impossible. Moses had his own sins that needed to be atoned for, so he could not provide a proper substitute for Israel’s sin. David, when addressing his enemies, begged God that they not come into God’s righteousness. From Noah onward, when grace is mentioned, it is something found or received, not earned or rewarded. One comes into God’s grace, and one’s name remains recorded with the righteous.

There is a brief reference to this book in Luke’s gospel. When the apostles return to their Lord joyful that the demons are subject to them, Jesus tells them rather than rejoice in this, “rejoice because your names are written in heaven,” Luke 10:20. Later, Paul writes of the saints serving beside him in the Lord, “And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life,” Philippians 4:3. What an amazing revelation! Jesus informed His apostles, and Paul told the Philippian church that his fellow workers (and by implication, them as well) were written in the Book of Life. That is a sound comfort. So we know that the saints’ names are written in the Book of Life. Those who possess spiritual life are recorded within its pages, which is why David referred to those within the book as righteous; they had received from God the imputed righteousness necessary to be recorded in the Book of Life.

Now I will not embark on a lengthy exposition of the verses in Revelation that likewise mention the book until we arrive at them in their appropriate times. But a few comments bear being addressed. The Book of Life is mentioned in Revelation 13:8, where we are told that the Book of Life is further called the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In Revelation 17:8 it is further referred to as the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. So the Lamb had been slain since creation’s inception from God’s perspective. This was why He could pardon, even before Christ died on the cross. He saw its accomplishment and foreshadowed its eventual entry into human time as a finished truth. The Book of Life also was with Him, filled with the names of every individual who would ever live, since it is referred to as being from the foundation of creation as well.

The Book of Life is next seen at the Great White Throne in Revelation 20:12, 15. When God the Son judges the spiritually dead, He first opens the Book of Life. When it is made clear that their name has been blotted out through sin (the sin of unbelief, the unforgivable sin) He opens the books of the deeds of their lives. The severity of their judgment is measured by these books, but the absence of their name from the Book of Life is why they stand before God at the Great White Throne to begin with. Finally, the book is mentioned a final time in Revelation 21:27, vouchsafing that only those whose names were not blotted out would be in the new Heaven and new earth God would create after sin and death were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is why the Son says that He will confess the names of His saints before the Father and His angels. We are family, and He is acknowledging our relation to Him, just as we, on this earth, acknowledged His relation to us by our witness, Matthew 10:32.